Parshat Lech Lecha: Was Avraham Deserving?

My question in the title of this post stems from my amazement at how little we have actually learnt about our first Patriarch, Avraham, thus far in the Torah.  At the end of last week’s parsha he is introduced (“When Terach had lived 70 years, he begot Avraham, Nachor, and Haran.”) and, without any further ado, Parshat Lech Lecha begins: 

And the Lord said to Avram, Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

I will make of you a great nation,

And I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you

And curse him that curses you;

And all the families of the earth

                Shall bless themselves by you. (Bereishit 12:1-3)

For what reason did Avraham deserve this blessing?  The Torah lacks any explanation. 

This parsha continues to include God giving Avraham the land of Canaan (“I will assign this land to your offspring.”); God promising Avraham his offspring will be as numerous as the dust of the earth (13:15-17); Avraham being blessed by King Melchitzedek (14:18-20); God comforting Avraham with his protection (15:1); and God blessing him with two sons, Ishmael and then Isaac, both of whom will be great nations. 

To Avraham’s credit, he follows the direction of the Lord when he is directed to move from land to land and he built alters dedicated to God; he dealt honestly in business (with Lot) and with those he defeated in war (with the King of Sodom) and he respects his wife, Sarai.  But there does not appear to be a cause-and-effect between these positive traits and God’s blessings bestowed upon Avraham.  Chronologically, in any case, the blessings began before any of Avraham’s actions were recounted.  Indeed, Avraham’s “ten trials” to prove his devotion to God only came later, culminating in the Akeidah (binding of Isaac).  Wouldn’t it make sense for God to test Avraham and then choose him for such numerous blessings?  So how are we to understand the reasons Avraham was selected to be the father of monotheism, the founder of many nations?

I think situations such as this – where the text clearly has “gaps” – is the best case for the Oral Torah and that there must have always been an oral tradition to accompany the Torah.  Without it, it is nearly impossible to understand what is written in many areas of the Torah.  The oral tradition fills in the gaps between Parshat Noach and Parshat Lech Lecha, between Avraham’s birth and the first time he is blessed by God.  The midrashim give us the stories that detail portions of Avraham’s life when he grew up with his father Terach, his uncle Lot and his brother Haran.  They espouse how he came to worship God when the majority of the world was idolatrous; how he treated people with respect and dignity when others did the opposite.  But Rabbi Ya’akov Love points out that nearly all of Avraham’s actions have negative aspects to them.  When he leaves Canaan for Egypt, Ramban comments: “Also, his leaving the land, about which he was originally commanded [to live in], because of the famine is a sin…God would save him from death in a famine.”  When Avraham call his wife his “sister” to save himself, “Know that our father Avraham sinned a great sin inadvertently in putting his righteous wife in danger of sin in fear of his own life” (Ramban).  When Avraham goes to war and then learns about the 210 years of slavery his descendents will endure, it is because Avraham “drafted Torah scholars for war” (Rabbi Elazar).  Alternatively, “because he kept people from entering the shelter of the Shechina” (Rabbi Yochanan).  Or perhaps, for “allowing the king of Sodom to take human beings [as captives]” (Rashi).  And for good measure, Sarai was forced to endure watching her maidservant Hagar have a child with her husband because “when [Avraham] prayed to God saying, what will you give me if I am childless?, [he] prayed only for [himself].  [He] should have prayed for both of [them]” (Bereishit Rabbah 45:5). 

It seems Avraham is a man with many faults.  Or, perhaps, it is because he was such a tzadik (righteous man) that we are being taught even the righteous have flaws.  Even with their flaws, however, they had the ability to be a boon to mankind.  And even with our flaws, we must strive to overcome them in every way possible. 

Rabbi Yaakov Beasley also has an interesting answer based on Rabbi Yoel ben Nun to the question of why Avraham was chosen with no background narrative: “If the Torah were to give a reason why Avraham was chosen before our parsha, it would appear that the act of Hashem’s choosing Avraham was a onetime act based on his earlier actions.  Instead, the act of choosing was a continuous process, granting additional significance to every action Avraham takes in Sefer Bereishit.”  This is just one example in Judaism where the eternal takes precedence over the ephemeral.  Avraham’s life and the blessings bestowed unto him by God did not end with his death.  They have carried forward not just throughout Avraham’s life and each of his “ten trials,” but also from generation to generation Avraham has been a blessing to us.  Most prominently on Pesach we are called upon to view ourselves – not in theory but in actuality – as the individuals God led from slavery to freedom during the Exodus from Egypt.  In Parshat Lech Lecha it is Avraham who God chose: I will bless you…and you shall be a blessing.  But today it is us who God has blessed…and we also have the opportunity to be a blessing.  We are made of dust, but endowed with a breath of the Divine that has given us this privilege.  It is our responsibility to use this gift to the best of our ability, as did Avraham. 

Shabbat Shalom.